Church officials will claim that this is about being sensitive to victims. It's not. Church officials' use of the phrase "negative publicity" shows their true intent: it's about keeping predator priests out of the news. Church officials know that every time a child molesting cleric is mentioned in public, other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers might step forward. Preventing such disclosures continues to be a top priority in the Catholic hierarchy.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 15,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

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As a victim of abuse in my childhood, I didn’t remember this until my fifty’s.
As a child a Priest snuck up behind me and grabbed me, I can only remember grasping
for air and then the rest is a blank;" my childhood is very bleak.
I started to remember in my fifty’s" because another man in my fifty’s did the
same to me and again I grasped for air" but this time I started to remember a Fr. Thomas Hanley. from St Paul’s School in Wilmington, Delaware.
I also have looked at how un-educated It left me ;" cold hard fact to snap into reality" to late in your life
I tried to go back to school a few times " but only to find it didn’t help me
no matter what" it’s as though my brain shut down on me year’s ago" due to the Priest scaring me to death" & looking back I couldn’t picture anything in my mind & I still can’t also if I read something I couldn’t comprehend it" nor would it stay in my mind
I didn’t get to live a normal life" I also missed out on my children’s life". It’s as though your hear but your not and this is very difficult to explain. Back years ago if I had remember they wouldn’t believed me “so the police would have never been called to help me;” It’s like even NOW " this very day " the law still won’t help the victim’s" for the simple " the law can’t bring themselves to believe a man wearing a black & white uniform w/ a collar ( a Priest ) is capable of rape" is this really 2014 ? http://wh.gov/lUF7O

Yup, priest that destroyed my family, not only did both my parents, funeral services, but is buried a stone’s throw away, from them, in the same cemetery. My father lie with a bullet, in his head, and my mother’s lifeless body, pulled from a canal. When the Diocese of Camden, NJ was questioned, as to why, they were holding a prominent priest’s funeral, “out of town”, they had this to say to the press: “It would be to painful for the people, of that area.” (Bullshit in it’s purest form) Here’s what they should have responded, if they were dedicated to the TRUTH: WE AREAFRAIDTHATTOOMUCHPUBLICITYWILLLEAD TO VICTIMS/SURVIVROSANDTHEIRFAMILIES, MAKINGCONNECTIONS TO OURHENIOUSCRIMESANDCOMINGAFTER US!!! WE MUSTKEEPTHESETHINGS, AS HUSH, HUSH (CULTURE OF SILENCE), AS POSSIBLE, FORTHEBENEFIT, OF OURPREDATORSANDTHECOLLECTIONPLATE!!!

Mike Skiendzielewski commented
2014-03-17 09:58:50 -0500

Chaput on one side of the Delaware and Myers on the other side. Wow, if this is LEADERSHIP, God help us. For this writer, it looks like HUBRIS in its purest form.